With the July 1 date for a new bill that would allow state parks to receive liquor licenses without public input looming, the various players on all sides of a proposal to renovate the pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park and build an adjacent banquet center are gearing up for what's next.

Gov. Mike Pence signed House Enrolled Act 1386 into law in late March. The provision allows the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to apply directly to the state's Alcohol and Tobacco Commission for liquor licenses for all 24 of the agency's state parks.

The bill passed after Pavilion Partners, a Porter County group that has a long-term lease with the DNR for $1,800 a month to renovate the pavilion and build the 17,000-square-foot banquet center, lost its bid for a liquor license for the pavilion before both the Porter County and state liquor boards.

Some legislators and Dunes Action, a local grass roots group that opposes liquor at the park and the banquet center though not the renovation of the pavilion, have said the bill was a "work around" for Pavilion Partners to get the permit it needed through the DNR to move forward with its plans, a charge state officials have denied.

DNR officials have not determined which parks might apply for liquor licenses.

The agency is "still conducting internal discussions on where all the permits would make good sense at this time," Dan Bortner, director of the agency's Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, said in an email. "We are evaluating each property and hope to have our plans together very soon."

While Pavilion Partners gutted the pavilion and built a comfort station for bathrooms and showers at the state park last year, no additional work has taken place since then. That will likely change in the coming months, Pavilion Partners said in an email this week.

"Our team has been busy working on architectural designs, environmental impact studies and other processes. It's our hope that construction will begin later this year," the email said.

Dunes Action is focusing on the tenants of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act to stop the project.

Because the state park receives federal funding through the National Park Service, it must provide comparable land to make up for what's lost to recreational uses through the project. The process includes review of an environmental study with public comment.

"It's the only really good chance we're going to have to defeat this," Jim Sweeney, co-founder of Dunes Action, told about 50 Dunes Action supporters during a meeting earlier recently in Chesterton. Sweeney is president of the Porter County chapter of the Izaak Walton League, the umbrella group for Dunes Action.

Pavilion Partners has contracted with the environmental services firm Cardno to prepare the document for the National Environmental Policy Act review, one of the requirements of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, Ginger Murphy, deputy director for stewardship for the state parks, said in an email.

There's no specific timeline for the document, she said, but when the materials and plans are complete they will be posted online at www.stateparks.IN.gov/8462.htm and interested parties will be made aware that they are available. There also will be opportunities for public comment.

"It takes time to consider and evaluate comments that have been received over the last year, and then develop the plans and documentation," Murphy said in the email. "The work includes both the pavilion and the banquet center, so the materials for both will be presented when they are ready so that Pavilion Partners and DNR can show a complete picture of the project."

The environmental review, Sweeney said, must include alternatives to building the banquet center on the beach.

"One of the alternatives they have to put in and analyze is no-build," he said. "They have to look at no-build and convince us, the public, that they can't do it."